Friday, February 1, 2013

Elephant Talk were a pleasingly punky Goth band that
appeared out of Cornwall. This last bit surprised me a bit since thanks to my
entire knowledge of Cornwall having been gleaned from Ripping Yarns, I
naturally understood it to be populated entirely by pirates, smugglers and
eccentric innkeepers.

The band seem to have taken their name from a single by Prog
rock gods King Crimson (EG, 1981) and several other bands have since followed
suit, making research into Elephant Talk ever so slightly awkward.

Sadly, Elephant Talk proved to be a short lived
affair and the Ask 7” would be the only thing they would ever release. Sad,
because it’s a highly enjoyable listen, especially the A side, but equally sad
because managing to get Art Director for The Face magazine, Neville Brody who
had also worked with much better known acts including Cabaret Voltaire, Depeche
Mode, Clock DVA and Throbbing Gristle, to provide the cover art must have been
quite a coup, but doesn’t seem to have translated into success. I've thought long and hard trying to work out just what this reminds me of, and eventually came to the conclusion of a cross between Joy Division and Bauhaus with Gavin Friday on vocals might come close. But decide for yourself.

A Welcome and Introduction

Plunder the Tombs was started back in 2010 by way of looking back on a musical past that I felt in sore need of curation.

It was a strange and sad time when what passed for “Goth” in clubs seemed a pale imitator of what once was, following first a decade of cookie-cutter Sisters of the Nephilim clone bands and then another decade of industrial dance being palmed off to younger audiences as a type of faux goth. When on rare occasion DJs in “Goth” clubs did finally become brave enough to play something like Bauhaus it was not untypical to have the dance floor clear, and it became obvious that the memory, meaning and legacy of much that had gone before had been lost.

It’s probably safe to say that the boundaries of what was “Goth” were never clearly defined. An absolute blessing for those bands on the original scene before it had a name pinned to the donkey, but an outright curse for those who came later and found rules had been imposed to dictate that which was and that which was not acceptable. Worse still was to come in the 90s from a lazy and unquestioning media who simply assumed that anything that wore black and make up was by definition “Goth”, thus allowing all manner of pretenders licence, and maximising confusion as to what the term actually referred to.

This has gone on for way too long and its time is at an end. Neo Post-Punk bands now proliferate across Europe, old long dead Goth bands rise from their crypts in the UK, and new deathrock bands are breeding like rabbits up the west coast of America. It is time to reclaim our scene back from metal bands and ravers in disguise.

While the Plunder the Tombs of old focused on what had gone before, there are now far too many exciting new things to ignore. We roar back to life in a reboot, covering past , present and things yet to come.

Let us plunder the tombs….

About Me

A DJ throughout the 90s at numerous Goth night clubs in Perth including The Cell, Dominion and others he was probably far too drunk to remember, largely as a result of his preference to work for bar tabs over cash. Also helped found 6RTR fm's Goth & Industrial showcase Darkwings.
More recent projects include the currently dormant Descent - a small night dedicated to playing genuinely good Goth music both old and new in preference to packing the dance floor with songs everyone had heard 20 million times before. He currently runs a monthly show on Behind the Mirror on 6RTR fm which can be heard on Wednesdays at 11pm WST.
Rumour has it he once masterminded an ill-advised Goth fanzine "Small Pleasures" that in retrospect, he remains profoundly grateful never made it off his desk.